Learning Note: Problem Solving Skills for SWE - P1

A quick note of Grokking Techtalk #44 - Problem-Solving Skills for SWE

This note is not cover the whole tech talk content. It is just a quick note to highlight the important points. It is useful when you already listened to the tech talk.

Who has the problem?

The stakeholders:

• Clients are the people who buy your product, or solution.
• Users are the people who use your product directly.

What is the problem?

A problem contains two components:

• The expected reality of the stakeholders.
• The perceived reality of the stakeholders.

Solving the problem is filling the gap between the realities.

Problem definition

To define the problem we have to answer these questions?

• What is the problem?
  • What is perceived reality?
  • What is the expected reality? Is it clear?
• Who is involved in the problem?
• How important is the problem?
• When does the problem needs to be solved?
• Is there really a problem?

Principle: Problem definition should be at the highest abstraction level that appropriately describes the situation.

Causal Analysis

Knowing what causes the problem.

• Draw a causal diagram to define the causes.
• Draw the casual loop diagram to learn the non-linear casual relationship. (System Thinking concept).
• Ishikawa diagram.

Common mistakes

• Forget that problem is inherently a human thing.
• Forget to choose the right problem to solve.